Torontocity, capital of the province of Ontario, southeastern Canada. It has the most populous metropolitan area in Canada and, as the most important city in Canada’s most prosperous province, is the country’s financial and commercial centre. Its location on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, which forms part of the border between Canada and the United States, and its access to Atlantic shipping via the St. Lawrence Seaway and to major U.S. industrial centres via the Great Lakes has enabled Toronto to become an important international trading centre. Since the second half of the 20th century the city has grown phenomenally, from a rather sedate provincial town—“Toronto the Good”—to a lively, thriving, cosmopolitan metropolitan area. In 1998 Toronto amalgamated with East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, and York to form the City of Toronto. Area city, 244 square miles (632 square km); metropolitan area, 2,266 square miles (5,868 square km). Pop. (1996) city, 653,734; metropolitan area, 4,263,757; (2001) city, 2,481,494; (2005 est.) metropolitan area, 45,682304,897100.

Landscape

The city site

The site of the city is almost uniformly flat, although 3 to 4 miles (5 to 6 km) inland there is a fairly sharp rise of some 40 feet (12 metres)—the shoreline elevation of the former glacial Lake Iroquois. Streets are laid out in a grid, although the pattern is modified to some extent by diagonal roads roughly following the shoreline. The central business areas are located around Bloor and Yonge streets and Yonge and Queen streets. The central financial district, with its numerous insurance and banking offices and the Toronto Stock Exchange, is in the vicinity of King and Bay streets, south of the old City Hall (1899).

The city skyline is dominated by the CN Tower (a communications and observation spire 1,815 feet [553 metres] high)—the world’s tallest self-supporting, man-made structure—as well as the Toronto-Dominion Centre, Scotia Plaza, Canada Trust Tower, Manulife Centre, Commerce Court, and First Canadian Place (Bank of Montreal), each of which is more than 50 stories high. Other prominent buildings include the new City Hall (1965), Eaton Centre (a large indoor shopping complex), the gilded Royal Bank Plaza, the Metropolitan Toronto Library, the Ontario Science Centre, and Roy Thomson Hall, noted for its excellent acoustics. The city also features an extensive system of underground tunnels and concourses lined with shops, restaurants, and theatres. Through the construction of new housing and mixed-use projects, together with the restoration and rehabilitation of heritage buildings, an extraordinary vitality has been brought to the urban core.

The city’s lakefront is separated from the downtown area by railway tracks and an expressway. Ferry service connects the dock area to the Toronto Islands, about half a mile offshore, which have yacht clubs, a small airport, recreational facilities, and a residential community.

North of the central business district is the fashionable Yorkville-Cumberland boutique shopping area, to the south of which are Queen’s Park, the Ontario Parliament Buildings, and the University of Toronto. Large expanses of grass and tall shade trees make this a pleasant area, complementing the ravines that form so important an element in the metropolitan parks system. One of the most attractive residential areas in Toronto is Rosedale, an older neighbourhood of dignified houses and winding, tree-lined streets quite close to the downtown centre, which itself contains many attractive streets of modest, well-designed houses.

Climate

Toronto’s geographic situation on Lake Ontario modifies the climate somewhat, although winter temperatures may frequently drop below 0 °F (−18 °C). Heavy snowfall, however, is rare even in January and February, the coldest months. July and August are humid, with temperatures often rising above 90 °F (32 °C).

People

The city’s population was traditionally Protestant and largely of British origin, but during part of the 1950s and ’60s Toronto became one of the fastest-growing urban areas in North America, with an influx of European immigrants that transformed the character of the city: ; by 1961 less than half the inhabitants of the central city were of British extraction. From During the 1970s and early ’80s European immigrants were augmented by large numbers from the West Indies and Asia.

Economy

Industry and trade

Toronto enjoys the economic benefits of its position on the Great Lakes and of its development as a rail and trucking centre. It is readily accessible to major industrial centres in the United States and to oceangoing shipping. As the capital of Canada’s richest and most populous province, the city has a widely diversified economy. Ontario produces more than half of Canada’s manufactured goods and most of its manufactured exports; it has immense resources of raw materials—minerals, timber, water, agricultural products, and hydroelectric power. The Toronto Stock Exchange is, in value of trading, one of the largest stock exchanges in North America. Tourism is also important to the city’s economy.

Transportation

Policy for public transportation is coordinated by the Metropolitan Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The modern, efficient subway has two major lines, one running north-south and the other east-west. Located 17 miles (27 km) west of the centre of the city is Lester B. Pearson Toronto International Airport, Canada’s busiest air terminal.

Administration and social conditions

The City Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto is governed by the Toronto City Council, which is composed of a mayor and councillors who represent the city’s municipal wards. Each councillor Metropolitan Council. Each council member serves a three-year term and is also a member of a community city or borough council. The responsibilities of the council include housing, finance, police protection, education, water supply, sewage disposal, and health and welfare provisions. Additional services for the city of Toronto itself are provided by a mayor and a city council.

Cultural life

The city is an important cultural centre. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra and other musical groups have an international reputation. There are three major theatres, together with many small experimental theatres. The Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum have excellent collections, and there are numerous privately owned galleries. Other attractions include the Ontario Science Centre, with its imaginative working exhibits, and Ontario Place, a large complex of recreational facilities on man-made islands that are an extension to the permanent Canadian National Exhibition.

The city has several institutions of higher learning—the University of Toronto (1827), with branches at Mississauga (Erindale College) and Scarborough; York University (1959), with Glendon College; and Ryerson Polytechnic University (1948). The Ontario College of Art & Design offers a wide diversity of excellent programs. Also adding to the colour and vitality of the city are the zoo (opened in 1974); dozens of excellent restaurants, boutiques, and movie theatres; and major sports teams. The Toronto Maple Leafs (ice hockey) and the Raptors (basketball) play at the Air Canada Centre (1999), while the modern SkyDome stadium (1989), a modern, multipurpose complex, houses both the Argonauts (Canadian football) and the Blue Jays (baseball).

There is an active winter season of cultural activities, with a rich fare of concerts, theatre, opera, ballet, and films. Lectures, seminars, evening classes, and meetings of all kinds cover a multitude of subjects, and the religious life of the community is sustained by a variety of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and other meeting places. Many ethnic groups organize traditional festivals, balls, entertainments, and social activities.

In 1967 the Metropolitan Toronto Corporation assumed responsibility for the Canadian National Exhibition—reputed to be the world’s largest annual exhibition—which was first launched in 1879 as the Toronto Industrial Exhibition. An international air show; agricultural, animal, and flower displays; theatrical and musical events; and a fairground attract millions of visitors in the late summer each year. The permanent buildings are used for trade shows and other special events between seasons.

Toronto Parks and Recreation administers approximately 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) of parkland, and ambitious plans have been made for the development of Toronto’s waterfront. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority is an important joint provincial-municipal agency concerned with the development of recreational areas, flood control, and the conservation of existing woodlands and waterways. It is responsible for the implementation of a large part of Toronto’s regional waterfront-development plan. The authority also offers assistance and technical advice to rural landowners.

Toronto is the main regional tourist centre serving the Muskoka Lakes, the Haliburton Highlands, and Georgian Bay, all magnificent lakeland and forest areas with fine hunting, fishing, and camping facilities. There has been a remarkable increase in winter sports, and, although Ontario’s highest point is only 2,183 feet (665 metres), good skiing facilities are available within easy reach of the city. Algonquin Provincial Park is some 130 miles (210 km) to the north, Niagara Falls is about 50 miles (80 km) south, and the city is surrounded by beautiful rolling farmland, with well-marked sites of historical and architectural interest. Camping, cottaging, boating, and fishing in summer and skiing, ice hockey, and curling in winter are the most popular forms of outdoor recreation.

History

Early settlement

The first known settlement in the Toronto area, Teiaiagon, inhabited first by Seneca and later by Mississauga Native American peoples, was on the east bank of the Humber River. In the 17th century it became a trading post, strategically situated at the crossing of ancient Indian trails going west to the Mississippi River and north to Lake Simcoe and beyond into vast wilderness areas. These land and water routes were followed by explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and others intent upon opening up and exploiting the resources of the Great Lakes region.

By the mid-18th century the name Toronto had come to be commonly used for one of three tiny forts built (1720–50) in the area by the French to defend their trade with the Indians against English and other European competitors. The French were defeated in 1759 and the forts were subsequently destroyed, but the settlement survived as a trading post.

At the end of the Seven Years’ War with France (1763), Canada came under British sovereignty; during and after the American Revolution it was a haven for those American colonists who preferred British rule to that of the new republic. Some 40,000 loyalists are said to have settled in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence areas at this time, and during the 19th century large numbers of immigrants came from Great Britain.

In 1787 Sir Guy Carleton (later 1st Baron Dorchester), governor of Quebec, opened negotiations with three Native American chiefs for the purchase of a site for the future capital of Ontario. About 250,000 acres (100,000 hectares) fronting the lake were acquired in exchange for £1,700, bales of cloth, axes, and other trading goods.

Ontario’s first parliament met in 1792 at Niagara, but in 1793 Colonel John Graves Simcoe, lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, selected the present site of Toronto for his capital because of its fine harbour, its strategic location for defense and trade, and the rich potential of its wilderness hinterland. He changed its name from Toronto to York; two years later (1795) Ontario’s capital consisted of only 12 cottages and a small military establishment on the edge of the wilderness.

While the British were engaged with France in Europe, the United States declared war on Britain. York, with a population of 700, was practically defenseless. It was taken in April 1813 and was pillaged and occupied by U.S. forces for 11 days before being retaken by the British. The Speaker’s Mace was carried off but was returned in 1934; the Royal Standard is still in the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.

Economic depression in Great Britain following the Napoleonic Wars drove many overseas, and York’s population increased from 720 in 1816 to about 9,000 in 1834, when the city was incorporated and the old name of Toronto restored. In 1849 there was a disastrous fire that destroyed some 15 acres (6 hectares) of the downtown area, including St. James’ Cathedral, St. Lawrence Market, and many offices, stores, and warehouses, but the city soon recovered.

Evolution of the modern city

Rapid development followed the coming of the Grand Trunk and Great Western railways in the 1850s, and for a decade prosperity was enhanced by a treaty with the United States (1854) that gave certain products of Canada free entry to markets south of the border. The timber resources of the province were exploited, and large areas of land were converted to farming. Thus, Toronto grew rapidly as an industrial, trading, and distributing centre; its population was 45,000 in 1861, 208,000 in 1901, and 522,000 in 1921.

Prosperity and security were reflected in civic improvement, great building activity, and cultural progress. Between the city’s incorporation (1834) and Canada’s national confederation under the British North America Act of 1867, many of Toronto’s buildings of historical and architectural importance were constructed, including the new St. James’ Cathedral, St. Lawrence Hall, and University College (now part of the University of Toronto), all of which are still extant. The Grand Opera House (since demolished) was opened in 1874, a stolid successor to the numerous small theatres of midcentury that were mostly converted barns. King’s College (founded 1827), later to become the University of Toronto, was constructed in 1843 on the site of the present Ontario Parliament Buildings (1886).

During the 50 years from 1834 to 1883, the city maintained its boundaries virtually unchanged. Some reclamation near the lake improved lakeshore properties and docking facilities. Largely by the annexation of adjacent villages and towns, the area of the city doubled by 1900 and doubled again by 1920. In 1930 the metropolitan area included the central city, four towns (Leaside, Mimico, New Toronto, and Weston), three villages (Forest Hill, Long Branch, and Swansea), and five townships (Etobicoke, East York, North York, Scarborough, and York).

The Great Depression of the 1930s caused severe financial problems for suburban Toronto. Capital debt payments could not be met, and expenditure on public services—sewage and piped water supply in places remote from the lake, for example—had to be postponed. A rapid increase in population after World War II added to the municipal burden, and many solutions were investigated. In 1953 the Ontario Municipal Board recommended for the 13 municipalities the establishment of a federated form of government unique in North America. The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto Act was passed, and a 25-member Council of Metropolitan Toronto met for the first time on January 1, 1954. One of the first tasks of the council was to find ways and means of dealing with common major problems by united action, while also permitting local matters to be handled independently. Since the joint credit of the combined municipalities was much greater than the sum of their credits as individual authorities, financing was greatly simplified. A common level of assessment and tax rate on property—the main source of revenue—was agreed upon by each municipality. A most significant feature of the system was that members of the Metropolitan Council were appointed by virtue of their election to office either as mayors, aldermen, or controllers of a particular municipality, thus ensuring a high degree of coordination and good communication between the central body and the local municipalities.

The Metropolitan Council worked well: it resolved many of the difficult sewage and water problems; it greatly improved transportation by constructing expressways and roads, a new airport terminal building (1962), and an excellent subway; it authorized the construction of new schools and the renovation of old ones; and it introduced a regional parks system in an attempt to control future development.

In 1967 the Corporation of Metropolitan Toronto was reorganized. The 13 municipalities were reduced to six, and the council was increased to 33 members. Later legislation gave the boroughs the option to rename themselves cities. The council considerably extended its responsibilities in education and the social services, adding, for example, urban renewal, waste disposal, and ambulance and library services. In 1975 and 1980 the council was again increased in size, and it added to its jurisdiction such problems as the control of urban development and housing for the elderly. In 1997 the Ontario legislature voted to combine the six municipalities into a single “megacity,” a change that went into effect on January 1, 1998.